Hyperion: photo gallery

The following images and text of Saturn's
moon Hyperion are from NASA's Planetary Photojournal. For more information,
see the main encyclopedia entry for Hyperion.

Cassini image. Feb. 15, 2007

Chaotically tumbling and seriously eroded by impacts, Hyperion is
one of Saturn's more unusual satellites. Scientists believe the moon
to be quite porous, with a great deal of its volume being empty space.
Impact blasted Hyperion is 280 km (174 mi.) across. Only part of the
moon is visible in this image, the rest being hidden in shadow. The
image was taken with the Cassini spacecraft
narrow-angle camera using a spectral filter sensitive to wavelengths
of infrared light centered at 930 nanometers. The view was acquired
on February 15, 2007 at a distance of approximately 224,000 km (139,000
mi.) from Hyperion. Image scale is 1 km (3,281 ft.) per pixel.

Cassini image. Sep. 26, 2005

Hyperion's crater, Meri, blooms in this extreme color-enhanced view.
Meri is overprinted by a couple of smaller craters and displays dark
material on its floor that is characteristic of many impact sites
on this moon. The walls of craters seen here are noticeably smoother
on their sloping sides than around their craggy rims. To create this
false-color view, ultraviolet, green, and infrared images were combined
into a single black and white picture that isolates and maps regional
color differences. This "color map" was then superimposed over a clear-filter
image. The combination of color map and brightness image shows how
the colors vary across the moon's surface in relation to geologic
features. The origin of the color differences is not yet understood,
but may be caused by subtle differences in the surface composition
or the sizes of grains making up the icy soil. The images used to
create this false-color view were acquired on September 26, 2005, at a
mean distance of 17,900 km (11,100 mi.) from Hyperion. Image scale
is about 110 m (360 ft.) per pixel.